Today...Tomorrow

For the fourth day now, I was sitting perched on my knees in the seat of the bus. Staring out the window, drinking in the passing landscape like a tall glass of cold lemonade (sorry Kezzia, that imagery won't work for you).

Then came that voice. "Heidi, did you bring books to read?"

I blinked at Angie. "Yeah...?"

"Well, here, do you want to read another one? It's really good." She extended a book to me.

I took it and considered the front: Under the Overpass. I'd seen it in the house and been interested, but we'd had to get going. And now I had it in my hands. I settled down to read.

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Some hours later, the book fell to my lap, the last page flipped and the cover closed. What a vision reeled through my brain! 

A young college student felt called to go--and not to a foreign country, but to the streets of America. With a buddy and little more than his guitar, he set out to be a homeless man for 5 months, to experience America as the homeless do. And he did. And he was changed.

Inspiring story, cover to cover.

I cringed in horror as I remembered the homeless man with the sign I'd looked away from the other day. My heart sank as I realized what lengths of pride one had to go to to keep themselves aloof from the "least of these"...

Wait a minute.

The "least of these"....... They are Christ's brethren. 

And what I do to them, I do to HIM.

I walked past Jesus the other day and felt myself to be too high for Him. I didn't so much as smile. In fact, I looked the other way.

God in heaven, have mercy.

God in heaven, forgive me.

I've seen "the land of the free and the home of the brave" in a different light today.

And one thing I know.

I have been called to reach out to the afflicted ones, whomever and wherever they may be. 

That means the man on the street with the sign.

How? ...Honestly, I don't know.

But God does.

And by His grace, someday...

Somehow, His love will find expression through this heart, these hands, these feet...

Not just in a jungle in Thailand I love so well, but also on a lonely street corner in some city where people are broken shreds, searching for light.

I see the world with different eyes. 

Funny how "today" can change so much.

Even funnier how much "today"s change will affect tomorrow...